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  1. Appalachickens

    Recent hawk/dog attack, just to have somewhere to vent about it.

    On Friday, in the middle of my workday, I heard something outside and went to check. No chickens out and about, but I thought I heard some up on the west ridge. I found two cowering in the dust bath inside the run and several more hiding under he coop. That was worrisome. I walked back up...
  2. Appalachickens

    First eggs!

    I thought I heard an egg song this morning from the older girls (who are 20 1/2 weeks) but when I checked the nesting boxes they were still empty. Then later, I was opening their door so they could free range and spotted a hollowed out place in the back under the outdoor roosting bars. And we're...
  3. Appalachickens

    First free-range for the girls.

    The chickens range from 12 1/2 weeks to 18 1/2 weeks so it was time they get to explore the larger world. Unfortunately, with the way the door of the coop is set, it’s really difficult to get the chickens in and out that way, so we decided to build in a chicken-sized door at the back of the run...
  4. Appalachickens

    I think I may have mixed up the breed of two of my chicks - can someone confirm?

    I got my last set of chicks almost 10 weeks ago from Murray McMurray. Unlike choosing them from labeled bins, you just get the box of chicks and a packing list. I looked on their site and tried match their photos of the chicks with mine. The buff orpington, red star, barred rock and cuckoo maran...
  5. Appalachickens

    Two unrelated chicken head questions.

    First question: One of my chicks was listed as an Easter Egger and I know that's a mixed breed, but she's 8 weeks and has developed a little crest on her head. Otherwise she looks exactly like the little barred rock I have. Is that normal for an Easter Egger or was she mis-identified? Second...
  6. Appalachickens

    Wheezing chick

    Hi, one of my 7-week old chicks, a Wyandotte, has started making a whistling sound when she breathes. I just noticed it today and don't think she was doing it yesterday. She has normal activity and I am not seeing other symptoms, but I wouldn't really even know what to look for. Any ideas?
  7. Appalachickens

    Deleted

    There really needs to be a way to delete posts if you find one that answers your question shortly afterwards. Best I can do is edit.
  8. Appalachickens

    Integrating different age chicks.

    Currently I have 4 nine-week-olds out in the coop/run and 9 chicks (4 five-week-olds and 5 three-week-olds) in a 4x4 brooder set up in the garage. Yesterday I took just the five-week-olds out for a long visit and left them unattended in a dog crate for look-but-no-touch time. Today all 9 went...
  9. Appalachickens

    Yikes - I'm increasingly convinced my calico princess is actually a calico prince.

    Minnie is only 5 weeks old, but her (?) tail feathers curve downward, she has some big whomping feet, and a slightly more developed comb. She's also bigger than the others, but since they are all different breeds, I'm not sure that has any meaning. She's friendly, and often the first to climb...
  10. Appalachickens

    Integrating three ages of chicks.

    Okay, I know this wasn't the most well-thought out chicken acquisition plan, but so it goes. I have four five-week-old chicks who just moved to a dog crate that is open to an area that includes an A-frame brooder with four 1-week old chicks. The older one are very curious and frequently watch...
  11. Appalachickens

    The beginning of my flock!

    After months devoted to building the chicken coop, I'm more than thrilled to turn to the chicken-keeping phase. Rural King had chicks in and I came home with four of them: a black sex link (Hulda), a calico princess (Minerva/Minnie), a production blue (Florence/Flossie) and a cinnamon queen...
  12. Appalachickens

    Roll-out nesting box completed.

    I decided to do a separate post on this since it is the most complicated part of the coop build. When I first joined BYC, there was a lovely man on here, Opa, who offered plans on building a roll-out nest box. I must have read that whole thread a dozen times. I made some modifications to the...
  13. Appalachickens

    Under the coop hardware cloth??

    I tend to be the queen of overkill, so I thought I'd get feedback before I do anything else. I had originally planned to let the chickens have access to the area under the coop, which ranges from 12" to 30" high to the plywood (3 1/2 inches lower to the joists). But I was reading about people...
  14. Appalachickens

    Height for shelter over dust bath

    I'm planning to put a dust bath in, possibly under a set of shelves in the run where I'll store feed and whatnot. I was thinking I'd have the first shelf be somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 36 inches high, to shield the bath from rain. Is that tall enough for chickens to easily use a dust...
  15. Appalachickens

    Biochar question

    I have another probably odd question, this time about biochar. I was reading about using biochar as an additive to coop bedding and also in dust baths, and they always mention that in addition to burning wood, you can use all-natural charcoal (the kind without additives like lighter fluid, I'm...
  16. Appalachickens

    Double fencing for run?

    This is a potentially silly question that occurred to me while on vacation, and since I have wifi on the ship… I’m planning to enclose the run in HC, sides and top. I remember reading somewhere that HC is good for raccoons, weasels, rats and so on, but less so for canids like foxes, dogs and...
  17. Appalachickens

    Finally starting on my coop!

    I joined BYC a few years ago, after we'd bought land but before we had built our house and moved. The first two years I devoted to planting fruit trees and native plants, but I've got 9 chicks on the way next April and have started working on a coop and run. I thought I'd post progress as I go...
  18. Appalachickens

    Chicken strollers.

    I don't know if links will post, but I saw this and thought it was funny: Chicken strollers
  19. Appalachickens

    WIld onions

    Okay, this is probably a silly question, but the place we've cleared to build a chicken coop has a fair number of wild onions growing in it. I've read it's best not to feed chickens onions. Would it make sense for me to dig those out or is it not a problem if the chickens eat them?
  20. Appalachickens

    External nest boxes and frozen eggs

    I'm trying to design a coop and wanted to do external nesting boxes but have read on here about people having problems with eggs freezing in the winter. The coop will be at the lowest elevation on the property (about 1400 ft), but even so it is in the mountains, shaded, and it snows/gets very...
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